Brigitte Bardot, the dazzling French actress whose sensual screen presence and unapologetic spirit made her an icon of 20th-century cinema, has died at the age of 91. Her foundation announced her passing on December 28, 2025, closing the chapter on a life that both captivated and divided audiences around the world. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed, but the news quickly reverberated across France and beyond, prompting reflection on Bardot’s complex legacy as both a star and a provocateur.
Born in Paris on September 28, 1934, Bardot grew up in the privileged but tightly controlled world of the 16th arrondissement. She later described herself as a shy, self-conscious child who “wore spectacles and had lank hair,” according to Reuters. Yet by age 15, Bardot’s life had already taken a dramatic turn: she appeared on the cover of Elle magazine, launching a modeling career that would swiftly lead her to the silver screen.
It was the 1956 film And God Created Woman, directed by her first husband Roger Vadim, that catapulted Bardot into international stardom. Dancing the mambo barefoot with tousled hair and fierce energy, Bardot’s performance radiated a sexual magnetism rarely seen in mainstream cinema at the time. “She is a thing of mobile contours, a phenomenon you have to see to believe,” The New York Times raved. The film scandalized censors and enthralled audiences, especially in the United States, where its frank sensuality was both celebrated and condemned. According to BBC, Bardot later reflected, “I owe everything to the Americans.”
Her rise was meteoric, but not without controversy. U.S. theater owners were arrested for screening And God Created Woman, and Bardot faced criticism at home as well. The debate around her persona inspired feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir to write the influential essay “Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome,” in which Bardot was cast as a symbol of post-war liberation. De Beauvoir observed, “She walks, she dances, she moves. In the hunting game, she is both hunter and prey. Males are an object for her, as much as she is an object for them. This is precisely what hurts males’ pride.” In a 1959 article for Esquire, de Beauvoir added, “B.B. does not try to scandalise. She follows her inclinations. She eats when she is hungry and makes love with the same unceremonious simplicity. Moral lapses can be corrected, but how could B.B. be cured of that dazzling virtue—genuineness? It is her very substance.”
Bardot’s allure extended far beyond French cinema. She became a muse for designers like Dior, Balmain, and Pierre Cardin, and inspired artists from Bob Dylan—who wrote an early song about her—to Andy Warhol, who painted her portrait. Her signature bouffant hair, thick eyeliner, and effortless chic defined an era and continue to influence fashion to this day.
Yet Bardot’s personal life was often turbulent. She married four times: first to Vadim, then to actor Jacques Charrier, German millionaire Gunter Sachs, and finally to Bernard d’Ormale, a former adviser to France’s far-right National Front. Her affairs and heartbreaks were widely reported, and her struggles with depression were no secret. On her 26th birthday, Bardot attempted suicide at her home on the French Riviera. “Nobody can imagine how horrific it was, such an ordeal,” she later recalled. “I couldn’t go on living like that.” Rumors of another attempt surfaced years later, underscoring the pressures that came with her extraordinary fame.
Alongside her acting career, Bardot found success as a singer, collaborating with Serge Gainsbourg on songs like the erotic “Je t’aime ... moi non plus.” She also became the model for a bust of Marianne, the symbolic figure of the French Republic. But despite her acclaim, Bardot often felt isolated by celebrity. “I have been very happy, very rich, very beautiful, much adulated, very famous and very unhappy,” she told Paris Match around her 50th birthday. “I’ve been let down too often. I’ve had really terrible disappointments in my life. That is why I’ve chosen to withdraw, to live alone.”
In 1973, Bardot stunned the world by retiring from acting at the height of her fame. Disenchanted with the industry, she declared cinema “rotten” and retreated to the coastal town of Saint-Tropez. “I was really sick of it,” Bardot said. “Good thing I stopped, because what happened to Marilyn Monroe and Romy Schneider would have happened to me.”
It was in Saint-Tropez that Bardot found her true calling: animal welfare. After meeting activist Paul Watson in the late 1970s, Bardot threw herself into the cause, founding the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals in 1986. She auctioned off personal memorabilia to fund her work, supported high-profile campaigns against animal cruelty, and even threatened to leave France over animal welfare disputes. “This is my only battle, the only direction I want to give my life,” Bardot said in 2013. Her devotion was legendary—she sheltered stray dogs on film sets, fought against the culling of feral cats in Australia, and campaigned for the protection of circus elephants. “I gave my beauty and my youth to men,” she once explained. “I am going to give my wisdom and experience to animals.”
Yet Bardot’s later years were also marked by controversy. Her outspoken views on immigration, Islam, and homosexuality led to six convictions for inciting racial hatred between 1997 and 2008, with fines totaling more than AU$86,916. In one case, she was fined €15,000 for describing Muslims as “this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its acts.” Bardot endorsed far-right political figures, calling Marine Le Pen “the Joan of Arc of the 21st century.” When asked in May 2025 if she considered herself a symbol of the sexual revolution, Bardot dismissed the notion: “No, because before me, plenty of wild things had already happened—they didn’t wait for me. Feminism isn’t my thing; I like men.”
In her final years, Bardot lived in seclusion behind the high walls of her Saint-Tropez estate, surrounded by a menagerie of cats, dogs, and horses. She rarely reflected on her film career, telling BFM TV in 2025, “I don’t think about it, but I don’t reject it, because it’s thanks to it that I’m known everywhere in the world as someone who defends animals.”
Brigitte Bardot leaves behind a legacy as dazzling as it is divisive—a woman who embodied post-war liberation, courted controversy, and ultimately chose a life of solitude and advocacy over the glitz of celebrity. Her influence on cinema, fashion, and animal welfare will not soon be forgotten.
